The Art of Living
by LuceDiFur
Summary: No one chooses who to fall in love with. Love will happen when you least expect it. Dean is about to learn those two life lessons because love is always more complicated than it seems. What happens the love of your life has secrets that rival your own? Will the man that changed Dean's world for the better also be the one to destroy it?


**Hello beauties!**

**I have been working on this story for quite sometime and decided that while I was fleshing out my final product for publication I would let all of your wonderful people read this as a ****fanfic! In reality this will be a fictional book based off factual events just as it is here with name changes!**

**If you enjoy this story and would like to read more then please leave a tiny little review and let me know what you think! I should warn you though, I do write dreadfully slow so don't give up the next chapter will come!**

**- Luce**

The first punch caught me directly in the stomach, violently shoving the air from my lungs and causing my vision to swim into a sickening blur of colors. I fell to the ground clutching my stomach hoping that one punch would be the end of this humiliation. Praying that Zacharia and his so-called "flock" would just walk away but obviously God wasn't listening today, not that he ever really does.

_What was I thinking? That life would get better? That for once I could be more than the social outcast sitting in the back of the classroom?_

I barely had a moments notice before one of the bastard's boots caught me in the ribs rapidly followed by another then another, each one seeming to hurt just a bit more. They continued one after the other and their manic laughter grew until I was sure their intention was to kill me. I could feel blood running down my face pooling on the warm, gritty concrete below only growing every time exhaled another painful breath.

Zacharia grabbed me by the neck turning my head to face him.

"Open your eyes and look at me you pathetic little bitch" he growled so close to my face that I could feel the flecks of spit leave his lips.

I should have listened and opened my eyes so that he could spew his biblical filth then leave but I refused to give his the satisfaction.

"I said open your eyes freak!" he screamed pressing his thumb against my airway.

"Fuck you" I managed to wheeze out with what little air I had left.

"What did you just say?" Zacharia began violently jerking my neck in all directions. "I should have killed when you first got to this school! No one wants-"

"Zach, someone's coming" I heard one of his goons say quickly.

"We aren't finished. Just remember I have eyes and ears everywhere" Zacharia whispered in my ear and slowly got up to walk away but not before punching me in the face.

When I was sure they were gone I cracked open my eyes trying to fight off the swirling darkness threading through my vision but it refused to let me go. The slap of running feet could be heard in the distance and as much as wanted to yell out all I could do was crunch into myself as I finally sucummed to the peaceful blackness pulling me down.

The gentle drag of something warm and wet across my face drudged me from my peaceful state. I could smell horrid odor of antiseptic and for a second began to worry that I had been taken to the hospital and how I would explain what had happened. No one knew what I was going through. They couldn't find out or we would move schools again and Sammy was just starting to make friends. He was doing well here and I couldn't be the reason he lost everything again.

_I could say I was mugged! But what happens when they see I still have my wallet? I could say I was hit by a car! Yeah that's it! Some maniac came out of nowhere and hit me with a car! But what if they ask for a make and model? Shit! What is the most nondescript vehicle I can give them? Oh I know! A white-_

"Dean? If you can hear me I need you to open your eyes?" a soft voice broke through my eternal rambling. I knew that voice and just as quickly as my worries had began to bubble up they leached away.

"Anna?" I asked opening my eyes slowly.

This most definitely wasn't a hospital I had ever been to. I was lying on a bed staring at a vaulted ceiling supported with thick, dark wooden beams. The walls around me weren't white but a cool gray color with heavy black furniture pushed against them. It seemed far to warm and luxurious, judging by the amount I was currently sinking into the mattress, for it any sort of medical facility.

"Hey there, welcome back to the land of the living." Anna popped into the corner of my eyesight with her megawatt smile and flaming red hair looking just as beautiful as ever.

Anna and I had met just a month earlier on her first day at Lawrence High School in our second period choir class. She and I had hit it off from the very start, so much so that rumors quickly spread that we were dating. We weren't of course, just close friends that confided in each other during those boring moments in class. I had told her of Sammy and how he had just made the soccer team, of Dad and his job that kept him gone most of the time, and how we were living with Bobby until Dad could afford a decent place. In turn she told me of her parents work as talent scouts and her aspirations of becoming a dancer once she finished her credits.

"What am I doing here?" I asked trying to raise up in the bed only to be met with a searing pain stretching across my chest. I gasped loudly and aborted my mission halfway up resigning to rest against a large mound of pillows instead.

"Short answer? We heard fighting coming from the band hall, went to check it out, and found you lying on the ground." Anna replied setting a bowl of pink tinged water on the bedside table. "I really should be asking how you ended up so beat to hell and back in the first place but I know you're not going to tell me are you?"

I smiled meekly at her and she just rolled her eyes with a sad smirk on her lips. Feeling bad I reached over and squeezed her hand in mine trying to convey that I just wasn't ready to talk about it yet.

"We?" I asked in hopes of changing the subject.

Anna let go of my hand to grab the wet cloth again and started dabbing the side of my neck presumably cleaning the blood and grime away.

"My brother and I" she answered clearly letting the conversation slip to the back of my mind as she concentrated on tending to my wounds.


End file.
